Subject: /usr/sbin/kexec: The /etc/init.d/kexec script is now missing, breaking kexec functionality.

From: David Kuehling <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:58:42 +0000

Package: kexec-tools
Version: 1:2.0.29-2
Severity: normal
File: /usr/sbin/kexec
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email-masked]

Hi,

the usual mode of operation of /usr/bin/kexec on Devuan (and Debian)
appears to be: load the new kernel, then trigger a shutdown.  Then at
the end of shutdown, instead of rebooting, kexec actually boots into the
new kernel.

This used to be handled by kexec's init.d hook running something like

  do_stop() {
    ...
    log_action_msg "Will now restart with kexec"
    ...
    /sbin/kexec -e
    log_failure_msg "kexec failed"
  }

instead of triggering a standard reboot.

In Devuan Excalibur (testing), all init-scripts for kexec are gone.  Now
running `kexec` just triggers a reboot, it appears `kexec -e` is never
actually executed.

Note that /usr/share/doc/kexec-tools/README.Debian still claims, that
init-scripts are installed, when in fact they are not.

I think systemd now natively includes a kexec hook for reboot, while
sysvinit-core does not, so on Devuan we still need those init hooks,
while they are gone on Debian!?

-- System Information:
Distributor ID:	Devuan
Description:	Devuan GNU/Linux 6 (excalibur)
Release:	6
Codename:	excalibur
Architecture: armv7l

Kernel: Linux 6.12.53-dk2 (SMP w/4 CPU threads)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages kexec-tools depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.91
ii  dpkg                   1.22.21
ii  libc6                  2.41-12

kexec-tools recommends no packages.

kexec-tools suggests no packages.

-- debconf information excluded

---

From: Mark Hindley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:10:18 +0100

Control: tags -1 debian
Control: forwarded -1 https://bugs.debian.org/1111802

David,

Thanks for this.

This issue is also apparent on Debian non-systemd installations. See #1111802.

The Debian maintainer appears open to resolving it. It may be worthwhile asking
politely if there is a solution pending.

Thanks

Mark